[953e]
and send out their own citizens; thus doing honor to Zeus, Patron of Strangers, instead of expelling strangers by means of meats and ceremonies1 (as is now done by the nurslings of the Nile), or else by savage proclamations.2 If anyone gives a security, he shall give it in express terms, setting forth the whole transaction in a written record; and this he shall do before not less than three witnesses,
1 i.e. by forbidding their presence at ceremonial feasts; or, because (as Grote says) “the Egyptian habits as to eating and sacrifice were intolerably repulsive to a foreigner.”
2 Cp. Plat. Laws 950a, Plat. Laws 950b.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968.
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